The Marriage of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein

Written and directed by Edward Einhorn

ORIGINALLY PERFORMED:

May 10 - 28 2017
At HERE Arts Center
145 6th Ave

LONDON PRODUCTION:

March 17 - April 16 2022
At Jermyn Street Theatre
READ MORE ABOUT THAT PRODUCTION HERE

A marriage farce in which four actors play over thirty characters. Identities are merged and submerged. Written in a style that echoes Stein’s work, this is a comic fantasy with serious intent. 

With: Jan Leslie Harding*, Mia Katigbak*, Grant Neale*, Alyssa Simon*

Set Designers: Justin & Christopher Swader
Costume Designer: Ramona Ponce
Lighting Designer : Mary Ellen Stebbins
Sound Designer: Mark Bruckner
Stage Manager: Berit Johnson
Assistant Director: Becca Silbert
Production Manager: Corinne Woods
Wardrobe: Tristen Dossett
Production Assistants: Victoria Giambalvo, Delia Kemph, Eloy Rosario, Lauren Winnenberg

*Indicates member of Actor's Equity Association

Read the Writer’s/Director’s Note here

photos by Richard Termine

Reviews

BEST BET “A brilliant love letter for Stein and Toklas in the form of a whimsical, furiously funny, and ultimately profound play...Their story is told in a style of self-aware charm, endless pretense, and suspended beliefs...It will make you laugh, and then before you realize it, make you cry as well...The cast is superb. Katigbak and Simon have glorious chemistry...A perfect example of a harmonious co-existence of wild imagination, an excellent structure, and a strong central theme." 

— Ran Xia,
Theater is Easy

“The highly skilled actors commit passionately...Utterly riveting show. There is an eloquence forcing its way through the shiny surface of quick witticisms and wordy observations that brings meaning and gravitas to the play...Underlying the farcical, high-paced, cartoon-esque moments lie truth and depth, poignantly and subtly lingering as smoke. Thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish, this love story that was, the marriage that should have been, is the play you must see." 

— Tania Fisher,
Stage Biz

CRITIC’S PICK “Einhorn gives Stein, and often Toklas, dialogue that circles and careens before crash landing in unknown territory...As brilliantly phrased by Ms. Simon, [Toklas'] gnomic utterances take on as much emotional depth as Stein's manner of speaking denies them, and surprises us in revealing the cost beneath the camp....He is interested in borrowing Stein's compulsively reiterative prose style for its intrinsic delight. To that extent, this 'Marriage' is a silly aural pleasure...What makes the insight fresh in Mr. Einhorn's play, is the absurdist language in which it's told. And what makes it painful is the understanding that in every marriage, someone is the genius, someone not."

— Jesse Green,
The New York Times